User:Polaris999/workspace/page08

Earliest text The oldest known version of the poem is the Northumbrian aelda recension.[32] The surviving witnesses to this text, Cambridge, University Library, Kk. 5. 16 (M) and St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, lat. Q. v. I. 18 (P), date to at least the mid-8th century. M in particular is traditionally ascribed to Bede's own monastery and life time, though there is little evidence to suggest it was copied much before the mid-8th century.[33]

The following text has been transcribed from M (mid-8th century; Northumbria). Text has been normalised to show modern punctuation and line- and word-division:

Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard
metudæs maecti end his modgidanc
uerc uuldurfadur— sue he uundra gihuaes
eci dryctin or astelidæ
he aerist scop aelda barnum
heben til hrofe haleg scepen
tha middungeard moncynnæs uard
eci dryctin æfter tiadæ
firum foldu frea allmectig

Now must we honour the guardian of heaven,
the might of the architect, and his purpose,
the work of the father of glory[34] — as he, the eternal lord, established the beginning of wonders.
He first created heaven as a roof
for the children of men.[35]
Then the guardian of mankind, the eternal lord,
afterwards appointed the middle earth,
the lands, for men: he, almighty god.[36]